[plug] Family membership

[Daniel J. Axtens]

I realize it's been ages (in internet time :) since this was
discussed, but I've been thinking this over for a while now, and have
come up with the following list of questions/issues regarding
family/corporate memberships. Some are new, some not so. Anyway, here
goes....

0. Why? Is this for convenience - to make it easier for families to
pay fees? Is there an easier way, such as allowing a member to pay for
other members? Or a webpage to create 2-10 accounts at once and pay
for them at once? Or is there another reason for family/corporate
memberships?

1. Voting/Constitutional issues
    How does a famly/corporation participate in the running of PLUG?
Can it vote? How many votes does it get? Is it related to the number
of people in the family? The amount of money the corporation pays? A
constant amount?
    What if members of a family/corporation disagree as to how to vote?
    Can a family/corporation be nominated for/elected to ctte? Is the
entire family/corporation elected, or is one representative/proxy
elected? Can a family/corporation hold more that one position? All the
positions? What if members of the family/company disagree as to
whether to accept/reject a nomination?
   How does PLUG deal with the conflict of interest caused, for
example, by a computer company being in ctte? By forbidding them from
joining ctte in the first place? By forcing them to not participate in
decision they have a conflict of interest in? (e.g. from whom should
we buy a new quadruple/BlueRay/HD-DVD/Hologram/Shiny-thing for the
PLUG demo box from?)
    What does the constitution say? (although it purportedly bears
little resemblance to how PLUG is run) Would it have to be amended?
Should it be amended?

2. Shell accounts
Do families/corporations get shell accounts/email addresses?
2.0 If they don't get am account, does that make PLUG less
useful/appealing to them?
2.1 If they get one, how is the shell account/email address shared? 1
password between between 3 and 3000 people? I hope not! Is only one
person allowed to use the account - an "authorized user" system (like
business accounts in banks)? How is this enforced?
2.2 Is there a set number/maximum number of accounts that are created?
What is this based on? How are these accounts managed? Are they
linked? How is expiry/renewal handled? Do we prevent passwords being
the same across the shared accounts?
2.3 Is there a number of accounts based on some factor and not capped?
What is this based on? (same questions as 2.2)

3. Money
3.0 How much should a family pay? A constant? Some formula relating
number of people to cost?
3.1 How much should a corporation pay? A constant? Some formula
relating something, such as number of employees to cost? What are
companies going to expect back from PLUG in exchange for whatever
amount of cash? Would PLUG accept donations of machines/services in
exchange for membership/benefits?

4. Corporate Complications
This is only related to corporate membership.
    Can a person be a member of PLUG personally as well as through a
corporation? What implications does this have for voting/ctte
membership? Can they share a email address/username between
representing the corporation and their own personal interests? What if
someone who is a member of PLUG joins a corporation that is a member
of PLUG? What if a corporation that employs a member a PLUG joins
PLUG? What if a member corporation ceases to exist?

5. Corporate Sponsorship
This is only related to corporate membership.
    Is corporate membership separate to corporate sponsorship? Should
they both exist, or should we have only one, or should we have
neither? How would sponsorship be different?  What would sponsors get
in exchange for their money/services?

***Conclusion***
What if the phrase "What if ...?" was banned? Then what? :-P

I've not decided whether I'm for or against family/corporate
membership yet. This is just some questions that (mostly) haven't been
raised yet. PLUG/people must think these through to make a decision
that is in PLUG's best interest.

Anyway, I hope this sparks some constructive discussion. :-)

Daniel J. Axtens


--
Neuronstorm: neuronstorm.sourceforge.net
The Neuronstorm Blog: leinad-golb.blogspot.com